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Wednesday, 20 May 2015

Books – Aberystwyth Mon Amour, by Malcolm Pryce

Published in 2001, Malcolm
Pryce’s Aberystwyth Mon Amour is the
first book in the Louie Knight Mysteries, a comic detective series. It’s set in
an alternate 1980s, where Wales is an independent country. The town of Aberystwyth
is controlled by the Druids, a sort of magical mafia. They are led by Grand
Wizard Lovespoon, the sinister Welsh teacher from the local school, and his
other teacher friends. In this strange and original setting, schoolboys start
to go missing – and it’s up to Louie Knight, the town’s private investigator,
to try and work out just what’s going on.

This is quite a strange
book. Pryce launches you straight into the world, with very little explanation.
I’ll admit that I did get confused here and there with who everyone was and
just what was going on, but very quickly you get immersed in the plot and
world. I really enjoy the sheer randomness of this book. You never know quite
what’s coming next, in either the world or the plot, and this alone makes you keen
to read on.

What I like best
about Aberystwyth Mon Amour is the
details. It is full of fun and strange intricacies which show a great deal of
imagination on Pryce’s part. A lot of these are just casually slipped in with
little explanation, which I really enjoy. I love that Louie’s father runs a
donkey sanctuary and goes by the name of Eeyore. I love that Louie’s assistant (his
Watsons or his Hastings, if you will), ends up being a teenager girl known as
Calamity Jane. I love that drugs are sold and smuggled in the oddest of
household items. I love that the town’s brothel, The Moulin Club, is on Patriarch
Street. I love that the Mafia is run by schoolteachers – and so many other
little details. I imagine that for readers who have lived in or even visited
Aberystwyth (I have not), there would be even more great jokes that I missed
out on. I love that for all the darkness and strangeness of what’s going on,
the book is so consistently and brilliantly funny.

The characters too
are well-drawn, weird and interesting. They at times feel slightly Dickensian
in their exaggerated and almost grotesque characterisation, but I really like
that. They’re characters that suit the world they inhabit. Pickel, whose
position in the Druids is juxtaposed by his love of clocks, was one of my
favourites, as was Ma Evans, who works at the Witch’s Co-op, and Sospan, the
philosophical ice-cream man. However, my very favourite character was probably Calamity
Jane. Her friendship with and constant mocking of Louie really added to the
book, and was not only hilarious but at times quite lovely and moving. I’m
looking forward to coming across her again in the rest of the series.

I think I preferred the
book’s intricacies to the overall plot. Now, in some ways the mystery plot is
brilliant. I like that there are new surprises even when you think there’s no
room for any more twists and turns. And I do to an extent like just how
ridiculously complicated everything becomes. However, on the other hand there
were moments when I had just no idea what was going on, when I think perhaps I
was supposed to. I got especially confused by the background history about the
war of independence, and the mythical (I think; I’m still not entirely sure)
kingdom of Cantref-y-Gwaelod. There are a few times that I feel Pryce gets
carried away with the brilliancy and humour of his ideas, and therefore doesn’t
slow down to make them entirely clear to the reader. There are also quite a lot
of characters for a fairly small book. Overall, however, I think this is mainly
because we’re getting used to a complicated and different world at the same
time as trying to follow a complex plot. So I’m looking forward to reading some
more in the series, where that at least won’t be a problem.

Despite some minor
confusion, this really is a delightful and enjoyable novel. It’s original,
quirky and eccentric – all things I like in a book. As I’ve said, it’s really
the details rather than the overall plot that made it for me, but these little
details are so clever, funny and well thought out that I still really enjoyed
the book, even if I wasn’t always entirely clear what was happening. It’s the
humour and the world I found most engaged it, rather than the mystery. However,
this didn’t lessen my enjoyment of the book, and I’m excited to read the rest
of the series.

Greatest
strength: Probably
the random beauty in the attention to detail, which helps create this inventive
and funny world.

Greatest
weakness: As I
said, I did at times get a little confused.

Let’s
finish on a quote:‘Aberystwyth was a great place for a connoisseur of irony.’